News & Events

Ahmed Shaker has made a career out of seeing the big picture. A civil engineering professor and expert in satellite remote sensing, a field that studies images of the Earth’s surface, Shaker is using his knowledge to analyze and improve the built environment.  

In fact, he won the 2011 Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS) Bronze Medal Award for his contributions to satellite sensor modelling and remote sensing applications in his field. The Bronze Medal is one of the highest awards granted by the CRSS for excellence in remote sensing – and Shaker received the honour for good reason. His numerous projects are helping to save lives, and prevent property damage and environmental destruction around the world.

Along the Nile River, for example, Shaker has used satellite images to examine areas affected by seasonal flooding. Before Egypt built its Aswan High Dam in the 1960s, the Nile regularly overflowed its banks during the annual wet season between August and October. After the dam was built, however, excess water from the Nile was saved in Lake Nasser, an enormous reservoir. But a massive flood in 1998 forced the Egyptian government to release excess water from Lake Nasser into surrounding desert areas and into the Nile.

“It affected the riverbanks dramatically,” says Shaker. Using satellite images available for free download from the United States Geological Survey, the researchers compared before and after scenes of the flooding, and assessed the resulting damage to nearby villages and vegetation. This information, in turn, helped the government to determine which farmers deserved compensation and which areas were at highest risk of future flooding.  

The applications of satellite remote sensing are innumerable. For instance, Shaker is using satellite images to evaluate decomposition within an Ottawa-area landfill and the ensuing effect on adjacent vegetation. In another project involving Hong Kong researchers, he has developed 3-D models and topographic maps to detect and predict landslides – a serious threat to safe transport. Next, he plans to apply this research to the Trans-Canada Highway.

Over in Kuwait, meanwhile, Shaker is working with Kuwaiti researchers to predict tidal movement along the country’s shores. Whereas most coastal regions experience tides ranging from 10 to 50 metres, Kuwait’s tidal zones can extend as much as three kilometres. If people had advance warning of those tides, though, they could move farther inland to safety.

Other projects in the works: collaborating with fellow civil engineering professor Said Easa, Shaker is analyzing highway structures and drivers’ sight lines to identify safe travelling speeds, data that will help inform the design of future highways. Finally, he hopes to enhance how small-scale satellites navigate and position themselves in space.

“As more countries send satellites into orbit, they are turning to small/micro-satellites, which are more affordable,” Shaker says. “But currently, it’s difficult to track the satellite position in space due to the difficulties of including star-trackers and other navigational tools on these types of satellites. The future direction is to provide tools for small/micro-satellite sensor modelling.”

Shaker’s research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the GEOIDE (Geomatics for Informed Decisions) Centre of Excellence and Ryerson University.